


Jack Torrance, Prey?

by Littlebluejay_hidingpeanuts



Category: Original Work, The Shining - Stephen King
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-24
Updated: 2020-01-24
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:41:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22381270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Littlebluejay_hidingpeanuts/pseuds/Littlebluejay_hidingpeanuts
Summary: Essay on the homosexual themes within The Shining by Stephen King
Comments: 1
Kudos: 5





	Jack Torrance, Prey?

Maybe it is because I am in a Queer Theory class, but I cannot help thinking that Jack Torrance is gay, or that there is some sort of homosexual desire and panic operating within this novel. The Shining by Stephen King is about a family who takes up temporary residence at a haunted hotel that slowly brings out their fears and secrets until finally the father is possessed, attacks his wife and child, and the hotel boiler explodes killing the father. It becomes quite obvious that it is the hotel itself that haunts the family, especially when by the end Danny is calling his possessed father “it,” as in “You’re it, not my daddy. You’re the hotel” (652). The all- consuming question is why? Why does the hotel haunt the family? More importantly, why is it Jack Torrance that is so affected by the hotel as to be possessed? What makes him the perfect candidate for possession? It partially has something to do with the homosexual desire operating within Jack. However, it is more complicated than Jack struggling to come out of the closet. Jack hides everything behind a mask of control and safety when in fact he is dangerously violent. In fact his wife describes him as “a tight man, drum-tight” whose “loss of control” frightens her (344). It is in the act of hiding, and not dealing with this monster inside him, that the hotel is able to insinuate itself into Jack. It might have only been violent outbursts as a result of Jack’s fear and unexpressed desire, had it not been for the cruelty Jack learned as a child. This violence makes Jack’s conflict an even bigger problem. It makes him into a “human monster” made by an “inhuman place” (213).

  
The first time we are introduced to Jack Torrence he is mentally insulting his new boss for his “officious” attitude (3). One does not particularly know whether to laugh along with Jack’s jokes and revere his obvious masculinity, or to be disappointed in his bullying, arrogant attitude. There is little truth in the beginning interaction because the audience is forced to compare Jack to Mr. Stuart Ullman, the “officious little prick,” neither of whom is likable (3). Ullman is, in his own words, “a bit of a bastard” (7). He has to be “to run this hotel in the manner it deserves” (7). This serious, strict, and proud attitude Ullman has for the hotel and his ability to take care of it is something that Jack mocks and disdains. Mr. Ullman has control to an almost insane level. Ironically, these things that Jack dislikes about Ullman are the same things that Jack acquires when the hotel takes him over.

  
The hotel targets Jack for a variety of reasons. The first is that neither Danny or Wendy are appropriately weak enough for the hotel to possess them. Danny has his “shining” to keep his mind safe from intrusion. This same power is what makes the hotel desirous to have Danny. The hotel plans to use Danny’s shining to “improve the Overlook, to further...enrich it” (534). Wendy, the hotel is surprised to discover, is “somewhat stronger than [the hotel] had imagined” (583). Wendy’s thoughts, no matter how selfish, always turn toward the protection of her son. There are times when even she believes her protection goes overboard because it originates from a jealousy over her son and husband’s close relationship. Over and over she fears that she is becoming like her mother as she continually believes that it is Jack who is harming Danny whenever Danny gets hurt. But even as she is jealous and paranoid, she never fails to fight for her son’s safety. This makes the hotel unable to use them, and it must instead go through Jack.

  
The second reason Jack is the hotel’s perfect prey is Jack has a weak character. He is arrogant, but has no reason to be. He tells Ullman that he will be a good caretaker because he is educated. “A stupid man is more prone to cabin fever [...] He gets edgy,” Jack says (13). An educated man “can keep busy,” and sane (13). He displays his educated mind when he and Wendy try to understand how Danny got the marks on his neck. Jack references Freud’s understanding of the subconscious and William Carlos Williams’ study of images being more accessible than concepts to children. Jack even suggests that the marks may have been a form of stigmata, and explains the background of the religious phenomena to Wendy (398-399). Jack believes that his superior intellect makes him better than everyone else, and smart when this is simply not true.

  
This is never more evident than in Jack’s play The Little School. The play is about a headmaster and failed writer who becomes jealous of and kills a promising student. This play is obviously a recreation of Jack’s relationship with his student George Hatfield. George is smart, has a wealthy, giving father, is athletic, and an exceptional debater. He has the success that Jack has failed to achieve. Jack says that “he honestly didn’t feel jealous of George, or envy him his good looks [...] If he had, he would have known it. He was quite sure of that” (163). Apparently he is blind because this is a blatant lie to himself given his later actions. He intentionally sets back a timer so that George has less time for his argument. Now, there is never any proof of this, but it pushes George to slash the tires on Jack’s car. This causes Jack to slam George’s head into the hood and beat his head into the ground. Such a violent reaction is very telling. It tells us that Jack is full of jealousy and hate for George, and that Jack is exceptionally violent. Jack lies to himself constantly about his violent outbursts, and his arrogance leads him to believe that he is in the right.

  
This lying is very important to the hotel’s infections into Jack. Each time Jack ignores something or hides it, the hotel is able to sink itself further into his psyche. The struggle is finding out what the lies are. Jack’s description of the true history of the hotel is perfect in this instant. The story of Jack is “buried between the entries in these ledgers and account books and room-service chits where you couldn’t quite see it” (230). The biggest thing Jack lies to himself about is how intentional his violence is. He pushes all responsibility off of himself. He thinks “his drinking problem [has] stemmed from an unconscious desire to be free of Stovington and the security he felt was stifling whatever creative urge he had” (157). When he could not gain that freedom after he quit drinking, he hurt George, so he would be fired, and thus free. So, it was not his fault, but the stifling of his creative juices. This puts the blame on the school, and not Jack. He gives Danny the supposedly now safe wasp next to keep in his room causing Danny to be severely stung, but the bug bomb must have been defective, and thus not Jack’s fault. Jack intentionally refuses to acknowledge the reality of the moving topiary animals, believing them to be a hallucination. This leads him to hit Danny when Danny reveals, “You know I’m telling the truth [...] You know because you saw--” (445). This is because nothing is more important than keeping his secrets safe.

  
Luckily for Jack, the Overlook Hotel is a perfect place for secrets. The hotel uses two secrets in particular to twist up Jack’s mind: Jack’s father and George. Jack’s father was an abusive drunk. The hotel pulls out the part of Jack that is most like his father. It tempts him with martinis and makes him hear his father’s voices telling him, “You have to kill him, Jacky, and her, too. Because a real artist must suffer” (341). Jack considers himself an artist. He wants fames, and hopes to get it in the form of his play and a biography of the hotel. The hotel dangles this fame out for him, calling him “a true scholar,” and telling him to “Pursue the topic to the end. Exhaust all sources” (535). The hotel promises Jack that he will find his fame through the help of the hotel, all he needs to do is give up his son. The hotel also insidiously gets Jack to believe that his father’s violence was a good thing. “Now he could see how necessary [the abuse] had been [and] could finally appreciate Daddy’s wisdom”(580). This finally makes Jack into a proper vessel for the hotel. It is after this moment that Jack is fully possessed because he no longer fights for the safety of his family. Instead he believes they deserve to be punished as his father has been telling him.

The second secret that the hotel uses is Jack’s unconventional sexual desire. In the beginning, Wendy and Jack are said to have a healthy, normal sexual relationship. In fact, that seems to be the only thing they do well together. It is in tiny descriptions all through the novel that we see Jack’s desire is not quite normal, but bisexual. He does enjoy women. He fixates on the exposed breast of a woman at the hotel’s party (523-525). At the same time, Jack shows a desire for George Hatfield. He notices the attractiveness of George’s appearance. Jack describes him as “Tall and shaggily blond, George had been an almost insolently beautiful boy” (162). He suggests that there was a possibility for Jack to “envy him his good looks” (163). This is not a solidly heterosexual way for a man to look at a boy. When Jack sees George in room 217, he mentions, “His penis floated limply, like kelp,” and how “the knife stuck straight out from his chest, equidistantly placed between nipples” (408). Again, not a heterosexual description. There is a desire in Jack for George. As this desire is entertained, Jack’s sexual relationship to women lessens. The breast he was fixating on is not very desirable. He describes it as “a loosely puckered nipple capping one sagging breast” (523). Even with his leggy, blond wife Jack’s libido has dropped. He becomes “calm, as if he had been reading a rather dull book instead of engaging in foreplay with his wife” (395). Then, there is the strange comment George makes when he accuses Jack of giving George less time during a debate. He says, “You hate me because you know--” (167). The question on everyone’s mind is “Know what?” Read in a sexual context George’s words suggest that George may be gay which is something that Jack has picked up on, and because Jack desires George and cannot express this desire, Jack hates George. His attack on George is a result of his anger and fear concerning his desire.

Within the hotel, this desire is welcomed. Jack feels that there is “Little Love, not here, but a steady undercurrent of sensuousness” (519). The dogman who attacks Danny threatens to “start with [his] plump little cock” (507). At the party, Jack comes across Harry Derwent, wearing an evening dress, upending a bottle of champagne over Roger, the dogman’s head (529). Roger in turn makes “frantic slurping sounds” to the amusement of all (529). This is decidedly meant to look as if Harry has ejaculated on Roger’s face. The image is reinforced by a woman’s description of Harry and Roger. She calls Harry “AC/DC,” but “Poor Roger’s only DC,” euphemistically suggesting Harry is bisexual while Roger is only gay (529). This openness of sexuality is attractive to Jack as he struggles to be free with his desire. This is another temptation that the hotel entices Jack with.

The hotel preys on Jack because Jack is weak. He has secrets and faults that the hotel is able to abuse for its benefit. The hotel presents Jack with fame, the love of his father, and the ability to be sexually free. These are all bribes just so that the hotel can get its “hands” on Danny’s powerful gift. In the end, just like Ullman, Jack is foolishly proud of his deep connection with the hotel and violently seeks to have the rules followed so that the hotel is properly taken care of. He even fails to do this as he forgets about the boiler he has so lovingly tended to. Jack is simply a chump who is manipulated into becoming a tool for evil.


End file.
